And this'll probably be my last postcard from this edge of the Edge, so it'll be a bit eclectic.
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In no particular order and for no particular reason...
We spent the day on CSMO at the base; tomorrow (today, rather -- I'm still tryin' to figure out if I'm ten hours ahead of you guys or if you're ten hours behind), we finish the equipment transfer -- it's "Defense of Pakistan Day" (commemorating the 17-day Indo-Pak war of 1965) and the troops will be primed for their half-day off. Friday, we pull the pin and launch for the safe house. If the gear gets here from Islamabad today/tomorrow, we trade signatures and if not -- shuk'riaa an' kudaa hafiz, handshakes all around, and we blast off anyway.
A couple of shiny items that caught my eye this morning -- uhhh -- tomorrow lasterday night in H&I:
I don't know why this made me think of The Chief.........Maggie
This could be the answer. Personally, if I'm gonna go wing-riding, I prefer to be within sliding distance of terra firma,
As far as the next item goes,
Before anyone says anything about "Let the Canadians take care of their own!" I'll just throw out two things.1. If you think like that - you'd be *very* surprised at how much Canadian money has flowed into Project Valour-IT. To include Alan's money, which gives him every right to make this request.
2. Yer a poopy-head.
I second that. Us washed-up old has-beens Viet Vet helicopter drivers have a special reason for appreciating the Soldiery of the Great White North.
Not surprisingly, ye olde captioneer made a few errors on this entry in The US Army At War: The Vietnam Years -- the pic shows a Pickup Zone (note that the troops are moving *toward* us, all the M60s are in *relax* mode and we're spread out, not bunched up to mass our fire) and us One-Six-Deucers belonged to the 1st Aviation Brigade, not the 1st ID. What's the link between John's comment and the pic, you ask? Simple. At least *two* of the pilots in the helicopters pictured were Canadians.
Might as well show you an overview of what Shangri-La looks like, and a generic photo won't bust OPSEC.
Of course, all we see at ground level is along our high-speed route.
And if you don't think that's a high-speed area, you oughtta see the places we travel s-l-o-w-l-y through. Got some neat vids...
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In the Op Area: Convoy bombings are becoming more frequent up north (Miranshah, Rawalpindi, Peshwar) and drive-by shootings of troops and security personnel are on the increase in Quetta, Baluchistan. The 19 troops captured in the Mehsud/Betani tribal areas were freed. The Taliban opened a regional office -- literally -- in Saam. The Mehsud tribe is almost evenly divided between pro-Taliban and we-think-you-idiots-will-get-us-all-killed factions. Currently, the elders are of the latter opinion, and elders wield major clout in Pak socety, tribal or urban. Meanwhile, 150 troops left stranded by a flood in the Khar region have been surrounded by militants and presumed captured -- four militiamen kidnapped from a checkpoint on 6 July were released yesterday.
On the Street: A suicider boarded a bus transporting Defense Ministry employees through rush hour traffic and detonated himself as the bus neared General Musharraf's military residence -- 17 dead, 70 wounded, including pedestrians and cycle riders near the bus. Most of those on the bus were reported to be ISI, and two of our own ISI shadows headed north as soon as word reached Shangri-La. Minutes later, a motorcyclist suicided near the Royal Artillery Bazaar, which is a choke point for Army personnel traveling to work in the area -- eight people reported killed, no word on military casualties. Both military and ISI spokesmen stated the methods, personnel targeted and attack timing pointed toward al-Qaeda rather than pro-Taliban dissidents or home-grown jihadis.
Further afield, German police arrested two Germans and a Turk and confiscated 700kg of hydrogen peroxide, the same stuff used in the 2005 London bombings; Danish police stated their arrest of eight men tied to al-Qaeda had "foiled a terrorist attack" -- location not stated.
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Sarge B snarked me (sorta) and I returned the favor. The *real* reason they say there's no such thing as an ex-Marine is because They. Never. Learn...
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Addendum: It's monsooning outside -- the first rain this place has had since before I got here in July. And the first time I've seen horizontal rain since the pic of the paddies was taken. And a comment (well, an excerpt of a comment) from one of our crewchiefs about that pic: "Supposedly, being fired upon without the incurred damage expected by the initiator is a rush beyond belief. Ha. What would any of us know about that?"
*snicker*
Kerry would'a got writer's cramp from putting himself in for PHs, Walt...
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